Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused widespread outrage after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by taking off their attire.
Several cases have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to generate photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting images of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
